Active

I had a whole overview of the race including day before, warm up and updates by mile. Decided since I don’t think that many people care or even read this I’ll keep it short.

Goal was sub 1:30:00 and I was able to finish in 1:29:06! Strava result here. MIssed the first wave because I had to poop so I had to weave through the second wave in the first few miles! Super ecstatic about this finish! Can’t wait to see what this year holds more me!

That being said, I hit one of my goals this year of a sub 1:30 Half. My other goals for year are:

Long run for the week was a 20 miler. No workout, just a steady 10 miles at over 8min pace then 10 miles at around 7:45. Decided to use the Brooks Ghost 11 shoe which I’ve really taken a liking to. A comfortable shoe that has more drop (12mm) and a little heavier than I typically like but it’s just an all around comfortable shoe that’s good for tempo yet cushioned enough for long runs for me.

Weather showed morning rain/showers but temps were perfect at around high 50s. Rain started coming down in mile 6, started pouring around mile 8 through till about mile 14 or so and finally stoping in mile 16. It was my first time running in that much rain and it wasn’t so bad. You can check my Strava for today’s run here.

I used this run to continue figuring out my fueling plan for my second LA Marathon. Overall I feel it was a great run and was able to progressive the half splits while being able to pick up the pace a little in the last few miles.

Just a few months late but butter late than never I guess. I’ll keep it short. Went in feeling confident. Had a good training cycle, felt good going into race day. Weather was ok but not terrible. I set a goal of 3:25:00 and missed it by about 9 minutes. It was a 20 minute improvement from my previous full marathon but it wasn’t what I trained for. Cramps got me in mile 16 and I couldn’t hold pace. It just wasn’t in the cards for me that day. You can check the Strava results here. Big thanks to Matt Schuck for pacing the last 10 miles for me, keeping me motivated to finish when I wanted to quit and my brother Cong for being there when I needed him.

Long overdue but with the Long Beach Marathon a month away I figured I’d post up an update on where I’m at. I asked my brother Cong who is a certified running coach to come up with a training plan for this Marathon. Giving him my goal and my race schedule he came up with a plan that I’ve stuck to for the most part. Some things have been adjusted but the important thing is I’m getting the mileage and the workouts in that I need to.

What’s different from this cycle compared to the LA Marathon Cycle was the planned interval training, hill repeats, intervals and track running. I’ve definitely felt a huge improvement in my running and how I feel during my runs. I’ve done better and recovery which has enabled me to continue the training at a consistent level.

Along the way I’ve done some races and hit PRs that I’m very proud of which you can check out on the race results page here. There you’ll find Strava links for more detailed information on those races if you care to see that.

This weekend is the Lexus LaceUp OC Half Marathon in which I will try to hit my goal of 1:35. This is a tune up race to see if my fitness level is where it needs to be for the bigger goal that I’ve set for the Long Beach full Marathon.

On that note, Time to finish my day at work and relax! I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend and gets their miles in!

I really need to do a better job at keeping this thing updated. Nike has an awesome event in which they shit down the 90 Freeway for a few hours and had a fun 10k race. It was my first Nike event and I’ve always heard they were lots of fun so wanted to make sure I did this event.

I did bib pick up at Finish Line at the Del Amo Fashion Center since it would’ve been hard for me to make any of other ones that were further away. Bib pick up was easy and quick but I later found out I was missing the bag drop sticker so I had to get a new bib assigned on race day.

The day before the race I did a Griffith Park Marathon Relay Preview Run so I wasn’t sure how fresh my legs would be come Sunday, Some would ask why I would do hills the day before a race but in reality, this is all for fun and as long as I finish with a smile on my face that’s all that matters.

Starting out the race realized I had gone out wayyyyy too fast at a 6:20 pace. This is way faster than my PR race pace. I knew I wouldn’t be able to hold the pace the whole way so I tried to maintain a 6:40-6:50 pace but in the later miles the faster pace wear really started to show. However I’m very happy to say I finished with a PR of 42:18!

There was no medal for this event, instead we were given a pair of Beats Earphones which was much cooler in my opinion! After the race we were given two free beers and were able to hang out and take in all the event had to offer such as live music, carnival style games, giant jenga and checkers.

All in all it was a great event and I look forward to future Nike events!

Welp I did it. I ran my first marathon. After a 19 week training program with the Long Beach Running Club I can call myself I marathon runner. In the days leading up to to the L.A. Marathon I was nervous about hitting my goals that I had set for myself;

A. Finish in 3:50

B. Finish under 4 hours.

Whenever somebody had asked me what my goal for the marathon was my response was always “Sub 4.” I didn’t tell anyone about my 3:50 goal because I honestly didn’t know if it was realistic for me or not since with running anything over 18 miles in training I’ve had cramping issues and my pace slowed down quite a bit after that.

I hit by B Goal but not my A Goal. I thought I has done enough as far as being hydrated all week and on race day as well as proper calorie and salt replenishment but again the cramps started around mile 18 with things getting really bad halfway through mile 20. At this point there was a lot of walking and stopping to stretch out but keeping an eye on my watch and how much distance was left, I was sure would still hit my sub 4 hour goal. Knowing that at 17 miles in I had an average pace of 8:33 and sustaining that till mile 20 then losing 20 seconds of overall average pace int he last 6 miles is a little disheartening especially since those miles are predominately downhill.

Doing some more reading this week looks like it’s just a part of long distance running, my muscles may have not been used to the demand of 3+ hours of running and should have got in some more long runs or incorporated some weight training and better recovery practices. There are just so many variables to this that I still need to figure out.

Overall I am happy that I hit one of my goals and was able to share the whole experience with my family, friends and the thousands of strangers cheering along the route. Would I do this course again? I told myself no but there’s something inside me that knows I can better this time in the future. Don’t know why I didn’t get the two pictures that I wanted which was one of me after the finish by myself and one with my brother since’s he’s guided me along this journey… man I F’d up.

Coming into Week 10 of LA Marathon training, I’ve been putting in considerably more miles than I ever have. Up until last week I’ve felt pretty good after runs however starting last week, my body hit me with a reality check.

Going on flat runs at a relatively slower pace than what I’ve been running at has been a struggle. Legs feel heavy and my upper thigh area has been really sore as of late. Talking to others in the run groups, everybody is stressing the importance of recovery and after run stretching as well as foam rolling. The last thing that I want to do is to injure myself to the point where I need to take time off from running.

I am still in my first year of running so I am still learning the Do’s and Don’ts of it all.